secrecy
In January 2010 Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, informed a press conference that privacy is no longer a social norm. Similarly, the refrain of apologists for expanding state surveillance networks and naked body scanners is that they’ve nothing to hide. Yet if such radical openness and ‘transparency’ is such a good thing when applied to (formerly) private citizens, would it not also be of value when applied to the operation of our governments, which, believe it or not, are also comprised of fallible, imperfect, corruptible citizens? A curious double standard obtains. Criminal cases increasingly turn on secret evidence. Politicians and CEOs meet to discuss public policy not before elected legislative bodies, but behind closed doors in conference centers transformed into armed citadels. The present administration works overtime to gut public access to information. Meanwhile, we’re being told increasingly that the less we know the better off we’ll be. Clearly, we’re not to be trusted and indeed ought to trust such trifles as the maintenance of our liberties to an increasingly shifty glut of expert councils that no longer demonstrate any interest in such quaint notions as the consent of the governed.
Smoking Guns — Suggested Reading
Bilderberg 2010: What we have learned
Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer
UK: CIA ‘put pressure on Britain to cover up its use of torture’
Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs
Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online
Banks won’t say where U.S. bailout money going
Top secret: Banff security meeting attracted U.S., Mexico officials
Archive (Most recent headlines first)
2010
Bilderberg 2010: What we have learned | JTF2 Commandos prepare for G20 with secret night raids, frighten Brockville residents | Bilderberg 2010: Don’t call it a pow-wow! | BC Premier Campbell mingles with world elite at private meeting | Obama secretly deploys US special forces to 75 countries across world | International Copyright Draft Release Was Apparently A One Time Deal: Now We’re Back To Secrecy | Audit The Fed Push Strengthened By Second Front In Senate | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | UK Government cannot use secret evidence in Guantánamo torture case, court rules | Censors threaten detainee hearings | CIA chief approved destruction of terrorist waterboarding tapes | Report: Afghans in secret jail ‘made to dance’ to use bathroom | Thousands condemn secrecy of New Zealand round of internet copyright talks | Harkat defence gets bombshell help from declassified U.S. documents | MacKay knew of Afghan detainee concerns: diplomat | New policy shrouds number of Canada’s Afghan campaign injuries in secrecy | Government Warned 9/11 Commission ‘Not To Cross The Line’ | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | UK Government attempts to keep torture case secret | CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners | Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer | Poland releases details on CIA ‘black sites’ | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | UK Top judge: Binyam Mohamed case shows MI5 to be devious, dishonest and complicit in torture | CSIS won’t open full Tommy Douglas file | Britain reveals details of Binyam Mohamed torture | Conservatives accused of hiding information | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | UN in secret peace talks with Taliban | UK: Cover-up claims as David Kelly post mortem set to stay under wraps for 70 years | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | Flaherty to use February G7 in Iqaluit (or Ottawa?) to push for global changes to financial system | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations
2009
CIA admits Blackwater presence in Pakistan | Blackwater guards linked to secret CIA raids | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Condi set sights on Iraq as 9/11 unfolded: UK diplomat | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | MPAA Says Critics of Secret Copyright Treaty Hate Hollywood | Fed Sicks Attack Dogs On Ron Paul After Audit Amendment Passes | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Americans Deserve a Transparent Federal Reserve | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | The JFK Assassination: New York Times Acknowledges CIA Deceptions | Globe appeal to protect adscam sources before court | Court orders CSIS to hand over secret file | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | French troops were killed after Italy hushed up ‘bribes’ to Taleban | McGuinty dismisses calls for eHealth inquiry | Obama White House can’t find — or won’t release — millions of Bush emails | Secret juror background checks not illegal, prosecutor says | Pope ‘led cover-up of child abuse by priests’ | Federal Reserve Appeals Order to Disclose Emergency Bank Loans | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Ont. Liberals block committee probe of eHealth chiefs | Evasive Australian police quizzed whether covert operative was planted among terror suspects | Arrest Over Software Illuminates Wall St. Secret | UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be revealed | UK: CIA ‘put pressure on Britain to cover up its use of torture’ | Panetta Admits CIA Misled Congress on “Significant Actions” | Revealed — the secret torture evidence MI5 tried to suppress | Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing — overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Afghan Airstrike Video Goes Down the Memory Hole | MPs from all four parties ink secret deal on cash | U of T’s Trinity College tainted by secret society | Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation | Our man at Bilderberg: They’re watching and following me, I tell you | Guardian reporter detained for taking picture of sea near Bilderberg conference | Geithner To Take Orders From Global Elite At Bilderberg | Reversing himself, Obama seeks to block abuse photos | Claim of Swiss account ‘preposterous,’ Mulroney says | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Leaked 1955 Bilderberg Docs Outline Plan For Single European Currency | Leaked Agenda: Bilderberg Group Plans Economic Depression | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Military’s ‘Polar Breeze’ cloaked in secrecy | American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse | UK: Government makes ‘unprecedented’ apology for covering up Binyam torture | NSA Surveillance Exploding, Americans Wiretapped Beyond Congressional Limits | Obama Tilts to CIA on Torture Memos | Following Bush lead, Obama moves to block challenge to wiretapping program | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Details being withheld of listeria discussion held prior to outbreak | CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes | New book details Mossad false flag assassination attempt on Canadian passports | Obama tries to kill lawsuit challenging wiretapping program, fails | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Obama administration tries to kill Bush e-mail secrecy case | Harper government withholds listeriosis notes | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Blackwater, mired in Iraq controversy, changes its name to ‘Xe’ | Senior judges attack US over ‘torture evidence suppression’ | Ignatieff seeks Harper-like control of party message | Publication ban law too broad, top Ontario court rules | CSIS invites academic community into the fold | Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Swiss nuclear-smuggling suspect says CIA made him do it | Khadr trial date up in air after ’secret’ refiling of charges: defence lawyer | Bank of England cloaks books, fears of monetary manipulation arise | Police forces withhold information on Taser use from public: audit | Vets Sue CIA Over Mind Control Tests
2008
Banks won’t say where U.S. bailout money going | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Tories release secret tape of ‘coalition’ strategy meeting | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Federal Road Toll Meeting Sponsorship Kept Quiet Until After Election | Former mayors support secrecy surrounding Olympic Village bailout | Canada’s free speech enemies to lay Remembrance Day wreath | UK MPs seek to censor the media | Copyright treaty consultation process snubs public | Europe’s secret plan to boost GM crop production | History: How the US Government Was Overthrown In Three Easy Steps | Tortured trio say report ‘vindicates us’ | Feds ordered to share evidence with defence in Harkat security case | Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan | Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says | The Millershevik Revolution: Centralization of Power in Toronto’s City Hall | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | RCMP lays no charges in Maher Arar ‘terrorist’ leaks, declares case closed | Hide IDs in court rulings, privacy chief says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Canadian military silent on Afghan civilian deaths: UN investigator | High court reprimands CSIS policy of destroying secret evidince in security case | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Amnesty International slams SPP secrecy in letter to Bush, Calderon and Harper | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | More secrecy added to already secret process | Charkaoui set to fight new security certificate law | New security certificates issued | The New Security Certificate: Rushing injustice through the Senate
2007
CSIS suspected U.S. would deport Arar to be tortured: documents
2006
Top secret: Banff security meeting attracted U.S., Mexico officials | Shadowy group meets amid secrecy in Ottawa | Secretive power brokers meeting coming to Ottawa?
2005
Project Paperclip: The US Nazi Amnesty
2002
Much of Britain sprayed in secret germ warfare tests
2001
US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation
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